Tonight’s game in Florence will see two of Italian football’s traditional powerhouses go head to head and there is certainly a lot linking AC Milan with Fiorentina and vice versa.
Calciomercato.com starts by looking at Giacomo Bonaventura who remains in the hearts of Milan fans after six years with the Rossoneri during which he racked up 184 games, 35 goals and 30 assists. He wanted to keep going but some unfortunate injuries and managers with different ideas meant he left in the summer of 2019 and joined La Viola, with whom to date has scored 4 goals and 7 assists in 48 matches.
Then there is Riccardo Saponara who was signed in 2013 after he had bewitched Galliani with his performances in Serie B for Empoli. In 2015 he was sold back to the Tuscan side and in 2017 Fiorentina signed him. After a series of loans to Genoa, Sampdoria, Lecce and Spezia, Vincenzo Italiano decided to bet on him.
Ciprian Tatarusanu will line up against his old club Fiorentina, who he played for between 2014 and 2017, racking up a total of 101 matches, in which he saved only one penalty against Belotti in Turin.
One player who would have liked to have been present tonight is Ante Rebic, who spent time at Fiorentina but did not really convince and went to Germany. Of the 25 goals scored for the Rossoneri, only one has come against his former team.
Then there is the head coach Stefano Pioli, who spent a couple of years as Fiorentina boss and helped navigate the club through the tragic passing of captain Davide Astori. He is still very highly regarded around Florence, and the work he is doing with Milan shows why.
It is worth mentioning Alvaro Odriozola, Lucas Torreira and Jose Callejon have all been linked with Milan moves at various points and Dusan Vlahovic continues to be. Nicolas Gonzalez and Sofyan Amrabat should start from the bench, and both have also been strongly linked with the Rossoneri.
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